Company tricks driver.

Well I looked that up just now, quite a bit of information on it. Seems that the employee must have been informed of the policy. They can't simply decide to withhold your last check without you being aware of that during your employment. It varies by company of course but it's not the common law as you described it.

 

Why do you keep assuming that drivers who work for companies that don't have this policy are going around tearing stuff up? Seriously, your not better than anyone else.

 

You said it was industry standard. So we can't just go off of your job now can we? We have to take into consideration the entire trucking industry. Which means vans, in drop yards, with no way to access the top.

And now you are talking about lawsuits which is an entirely different subject and not even close to being trucking specific.

 

That is a risk you take, but, this would depend on the driver, the situation and company. That's also where honesty comes into play. Does the company have reason to suspect you of lying to them, that would give them pause to not take your word for it.

Don't count on it, if the company can show negligence, they may not have to pay, or, the reward will be reduced. And actually, I can address this directly, few years back, we had a driver in an argument on the phone with his wife. Not paying attention, cut a right turn too short, went over a curb, hit a parked car, shoving it into another parked car. Cops were called, accident investigation followed, he was cited for careless driving, the company fired him. He applied for unemployment, the company fought the unemployment and prevailed, showing that his actions cost the company $10's of thousands in damage (the initial vehicle he hit was totaled) to not only the parked cars, but also the trailer. It was a careless action on his part.

Pedigreed Bulldog already answered this question, the insurance would repair the house, and come after my father, or my fathers homeowners insurance for the damages.

I'm not ok with them passing the buck straight to me, but, again, Pedigreed already answered this.

 

The time/date stamp pretty much takes care of that issue. New cellphones put a geotag on the picture as well, so that anyone that knows how can view everything about how/when/where the pics were taken. If you're on e-logs and the system shows you arriving in Mountain View, AR to hook to a trailer at 5:15 AM, and the pictures of the damage to the trailer were taken between 5:20 AM and 5:30 AM in Mountain View, AR, there isn't much the company can do or say to try to pin blame on you.

In other words, CYA and quit worrying about it.

Maybe YOU don't. I pretrip every trailer I hook to. Yes, I look over every side, as well as the bottom. If there is no seal, I open the door to inspect the roof as well as the general appearance of the inside whether loaded (secured properly?) or empty (swept out?). Last thing I need to do is pull a trailer to a customer to have it loaded and it gets rejected because there's a hole in the roof...and it's embarrasing and unprofessional to show up at a shipper and have to spend 20 minutes cleaning a dumpster full of debris out of the trailer before they'll load it. Do a thorough pretrip and you avoid those surprises that tarnish your reputation with a customer.

It isn't rocket science...only trucking. It really shouldn't be this difficult for you to understand what should be expected of you.

 

We don't assume, and there is a difference between a driver willfully, with malice intentionally tearing things up, and something happening by accident (as the incident stated by the OP) caused by being careless or failing to G.O.A.L. In the instance of willful malice, or intentionally damaging something, fire the driver, make sure it's noted on their DAC report, and as an employer if you can prove it, fight their request for unemployment. But, if it's an accident, caused by being careless, or failing to G.O.A.L., then you buttercup, as the driver/employee, should be man (or woman) enough to admit your screw-up, and if the employer gives you the option to pay a portion of the repair or hit the road, then it's a decision that you have to make.

But, I suspect, that if you man (or woman) up, accept some responsibility for your actions, and pay the deductible (if it reaches that level) or the for the actual damages, your employer might give you a little more respect for being an adult about it, and perhaps in a few months, all will be forgotten. But, know this, if you say screw you, and walk out the door, that's going to go against your record even more. Which, brings up this, you and other keep saying, "well find a new job". Ok, what are you going to tell that new prospective employer? The truth, you screwed up and couldn't accept responsibility for it? or some fabrication, that you better lock away in a filing cabinet in your brain that you won't forget about in the future, during say some BS session between you, the boss and some co-workers. Because I suspect, much like an elephant, your boss has a longer memory.

 

No he didn't. If you're not okay with them passing it on then why are you defending it? And since the Bull guy answered that he was then how did he answer for you?

You said you make 60k, great. But you know there are many other companies that pay that and more that dont have this policy. You know that their drivers don't go around cavalierly tearing stuff up. I'm not saying you should quit but why defend this incredibly cheap shot policy. I don't get it, how does it earn you more? Would you suddenly become a worse driver if the policy were removed? What is it doing for you?

Of the two of you, you seem reasonable. Just answer that one question. What does it do for you?

 

Oh God, you really do think you're awesome.
Okay, first if you pull out of a hole and cut it to sharp and clip the other trailer your Elogs won't even record that you've moved, so you could easily just back it back in and be done with it. Come on now, you know this.

Secondly, I doubt that you have ever crawled around in the mud, or the urine filled truckstop and inspected every inch of the bottom, so stop it. Which by the way is fine to admit, but it's such an easy internet claim to make, that you inspect every inch of your trailer.

 

I'm not the one making assumptions. All I'm saying is that if you DON'T tear stuff up, it is a non-issue. The great thing about this thing we have called freedom is that a company owner can choose to run his company however he sees fit within the scope of the law. If he wishes to eat the cost of his employees' negligence and continue employing them, that is his right. If he would prefer to keep what he's worked hard to build, he can choose to fire any employee that causes damage. If he'd like to protect his business while not taking quite that hard-line of a stance, allowing for a "second chance", then he can implement a policy where he gives the employee the opportunity to repay the cost of the employee's negligence in exchange for remaining employed.

And that freedom thing works the other way, too. You don't have to keep working for somebody that wants you to pay for your own negligence. Problem is, though, that eventually you'll run out of people willing to dig into their pocket on your behalf. As an employee, you are nothing more than an investment...the money it cost to recruit/hire/train you, as well as your wages. Your employer would LIKE to see a positive return on that investment. When you make that difficult by causing damages to equipment and property, your boss may take steps to keep you in the "positive ROI" category by asking you to pay for your own negligence. Like it or not, if it is not profitable for your boss to keep you employed, you won't be employed very long. So if you tear up equipment and DON'T want to pay for it, you become a liability...costing the company more than you are earning for them...and you'll be fired.

If you're still having trouble grasping the concept, I don't know how much more I can dumb that down for you.

 

Fir

First there is a LARGE difference between wilful negligence and negligence, if your are negligent and cause damage it is part of the cost of doing business, no money should ( and in many States cannot be legally ) deducted. Willful negligence is a whole other can of worms.